Can you guess what was one of the most popular movies in the world last weekend was? If your answers are Barbie and Oppenheimer, you’d be correct. But if your answer was Red, White & Royal Blue, you’d also be right. For those who don’t know the latter movie, he’s a brief overview: the First Son of the U.S. President and a handsome British prince hate each other, then become friends, quickly fall in love, and ignite an international scandal with their forbidden romance.
If that sounds like a cheesy Hallmark movie, well, you wouldn’t be completely wrong, but Red, White & Royal Blue has enough charm and high production values to make for an entertaining night in front of the TV set. For those who just can’t get enough of the movie’s rom-com charms, here are five more movies that share Red, White & Royal Blue‘s endearing appeal and laid-back vibes.
The Prince & Me (2004)
The movie that bears the strongest similarity to Red, White & Royal Blue is probably 2004’s The Prince & Me, a mostly-forgotten mid-level Hollywood rom-com that was successful enough to spawn three vastly inferior direct-to-DVD sequels. The setup is simple and positively looney tunes: Denmark’s Crown Prince, playboy Edvard, decides to attend college in Wisconsin of all places to continue his irresponsible ways. Once there, he disguises himself as a regular Joe (or “Eddie,” in his case), and falls in love with Paige, a feisty pre-med student who loathes his boorish ways.
You can guess what happens next: Paige’s disgust turns to grudging infatuation, the truth about “Eddie” is revealed, and royal protocols threaten to tear the couple apart. For the fluff that it is, The Prince & Me is better than it has to be, and that’s largely due to the two charming leads, Julia Stiles and Luke Mably, and the competent direction by Martha Coolidge, who helmed the ’80s classics Valley Girl and Real Genius.
Stream The Prince & Me on Max.
Your Place or Mine (2023)
Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher are the last couple you may think of as being similar to Royal Blue‘s Prince Henry and Alex, but the two couples, and their tangled romances, are very much alike. In Your Place or Mine, Debbie (Witherspoon) and Peter (Kutcher) are best friends, but complete opposites as they live separate lives in LA and New York, respectively. When they decide to switch houses and lives for a week (because why not?), they find that each is missing something that the other provides and come to the realization that there’s more to their relationship than just friendship.
Your Place or Mine shares one of the most appealing aspects found in Royal Blue: the sense of discovery when a friendship blossoms into something more. Witherspoon and Kutcher have great chemistry with each other, and that says a lot when their characters are often separated by large distances. Your Place or Mine is a low-stakes rom-com; it won’t change the world, but it may hold it at bay for 110 minutes or so.
Your Place or Mine is streaming on Netflix.
Spoiler Alert (2022)
Spoiler alert: There are no princes in Spoiler Alert, but there’s an unlikely partnership that develops into something deeper and much more surprising than you would think. This movie, based on Michael Ausiello’s best-selling memoir Spoiler Alert!: The Hero Dies, was released quietly in December 2022 but was overshadowed by other holiday releases and didn’t get the love it deserved.
The latter movie chronicles the courtship and eventual 14-year relationship between Michael, a writer for TV Guide, and Kit, a photographer. Through highs and lows — meeting Michael’s WASP-y parents, moving in together, and an unexpected health crisis — the movie presents a surprisingly honest portrayal of a committed relationship as it evolves over time. Like Red, White & Royal Blue, Spoiler Alert rises above the clichés and becomes the rare rom-com that’s actually romantic and comedic.
Spoiler Alert is now streaming on Prime Video.
Purple Hearts (2022)
One of Royal Blue‘s breakout stars is Nicholas Galitzine, who plays the handsome, charming, and emotionally needy Prince Henry. His best-known film before Royal Blue was Purple Hearts, which is already one of Netflix’s most popular movies of all time. In the film, Cassie Salazar (Sofia Carson) is a struggling songwriter who is a Type 1 diabetic, which wouldn’t be much of a problem if the price of insulin wasn’t so high. Luke Morrow (Galitzine) is a marine who owes $15,000 to a local drug dealer. In need of money, Luke proposes a fake marriage to Cassie as a way to receive financial and medical benefits, which would solve both of their problems.
Desperation forces them to go through with the fake marriage before Luke is deployed. They plan to stay married for one year and then get divorced. But the young couple must tell no one that it’s fake because it violates military law, which would result in a prison sentence. As the two spend more time together, their feelings for one another grow, complicating their entire arrangement. While its plot is light-years away from Royal Blue‘s royalty and politics romance, Purple Hearts will appeal to fans who can’t get enough of a melodramatic plot and a frequently shirtless Galitzine.
Purple Hearts is streaming on Netflix.
Happiest Season (2020)
Lovebirds Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) are planning on spending the holidays with Harper’s conservative parents. Embarking on their Christmas trip, Abby plans to propose to an unsuspecting Harper. Terms of endearment are prematurely shelved, though, when Abby discovers that Harper hasn’t officially come out of the closet to her family or her former male beau, who is looking to rekindle their romance.
A charming rom-com that’s both honest and very funny, Happiest Season isn’t groundbreaking, but its heartfelt story and committed performances from Stewart and Davis, plus a hilarious supporting turn from the always-welcome Aubrey Plaza, help to elevate the film above the rom-com pack. Like Royal Blue, it spotlights a complicated and somewhat messy LGBT romance, which is still all too rare nowadays.
Happiest Season is streaming on Hulu.
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